Aussie battle for Hannah Green, Minjee Lee at HSBC Women’s World Championship

SINGAPORE – On a sweltering afternoon at the Sentosa Golf Club, home of the Tanjong Course which demands both patience and precision, Hannah Green looked every bit like a former champion plotting another charge.

The 2024 HSBC Women’s World Championship winner showed her prowess on the course by shooting a four-under 68 in the third round on Feb 28, lifting her to 11-under 205 for a share of the lead alongside Minjee Lee (69).

The Australian duo now hold a one-stroke advantage over Angel Yin (68) and Ryu Hae-ran (70) heading into the final day of the US$3 million (S$3.8 million) event, with 10 others within five strokes.

As world No. 20 Green chases a second trophy here, she has added a personal touch to her set-up with her husband Jarryd Felton, also a professional golfer, taking over caddie duties from her regular looper Dave Buhai.

Felton also caddied for Green at last week’s Honda LPGA Thailand, where she placed seventh, and the partnership has continued to click in Singapore.

“Staying patient is probably the hardest thing when you’re out here, when unfortunately you hit shots and perhaps are not making putts or things like that,” said Green, who also caddied for Felton during the off-season.

“I guess having him to kind of bounce off, especially with him being a golfer, he knows what it’s like...

“So him understanding that and keeping me patient is kind of what he’s been doing the last two weeks. I’ll need a lot of patience tomorrow, so we’ll probably do the same thing.”

The calm proved crucial on a frenetic moving day that saw the leaderboard shift repeatedly.

Overnight leader Auston Kim found herself in a six-way tie at the top of the leaderboard with Yin, Green, Lee, Ryu, and Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn at one stage as the battle for positions intensified.

Yin briefly broke free from the pack, snatching the outright lead with a birdie on the 10th, but handed it back with a three-putt bogey on the 12th.

Green, 29, then birdied the same hole to edge ahead, having steadily worked her way up from tied-fifth with three birdies and a bogey through 11 holes.

The top two spots switched between both golfers several times, before Ryu surged ahead as she reeled off three consecutive birdies from holes No. 13 to 15, only to have a costly double-bogey at the 17th halt her momentum and see her drop back into a tie for third.

Yin’s challenge also faded after a bogey on the 16th when a putt lipped out.

That left Green alone at the summit, until Lee rolled in a birdie at the 17th to draw level, setting up a battle between the Australians.

World No. 4 Lee is looking forward to the showdown.

The three-time Major champion said: “I don’t actually feel like we’ve played that much over years together.

“We played a few practice rounds or a few rounds back at home in the off-season, but it will be a fun challenge tomorrow. I’m sure we’ll have a good time anyway.”

The 29-year-old has found her form quickly in her first start of the season, after skipping the opening two events.

During her time off, she took a holiday to South Korea to visit her extended family and did not touch her clubs until a month before the Singapore event.

She said: “I didn’t do anything that different. I just did what I liked.

“I think I deserve that time (off) to just do what I enjoy – catch up with my friends and have a drink here and there.”

Green’s 68 was the joint-lowest round of the day alongside Yin, Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Wei-ling and Yuri Yoshida of Japan.

Being in contention brings back memories from two years ago, when she was solo second and two strokes back from Japan’s Ayaka Furue going into the final round, before

mounting a comeback on the last day to seal the win

.

Green said: “There are a lot of birdies to be made but it’s very easy to make bogey, so it’s just limiting as many of those as possible.

“I’ve been hitting the ball into the greens, so if I can continue to do that, that’s good.

“Even though I’m playing with Minjee, we are good friends. I don’t want to get too caught up in what her scores are. I want to do my thing and hopefully keep making birdies and make lots of putts.”

Singaporean golfer Shannon Tan produced her best round of the week with an even-par 72 to move up three spots to tied-64th with a six-over 222 total.

Amateur Chen Xingtong slipped from tied-44th to joint-66th after a seven-over 79 left her at seven-over 223.

Defending champion Lydia Ko of New Zealand sits tied-20th after carding a one-under 71 to sign for a three-under 213 at the end of the penultimate day of action.